Fractured Fairy Tale: The Little Mermaid
by marianneks3
Summary: Can a merman risk his life for true love? Can a confused girl- now a mermaid- see past his act to peek inside his open heart? My own retold version of The Little Mermaid. Some gender swaps and changes to the plot from my end, but the overall flavour of the story is the same.


It is a windy and clear day, at 10 am, and I am strolling down the beach near my castle. My long auburn hair flutters behind me, my barefeet sinking in the wet sand. My name, in case you were wondering, is Erica, and my father is the king, which makes me a princess. I am nearly at the end of the wide stretch of sand when I see a strange creature washed up on shore. It has the upper body of a human, but below the waist, where a pair of legs would be, it has a long, sparkling, green tail. I nearly scream at the sight of this bizarre monster, but I manage to clap a hand over my mouth before I break the thick silence around me. Cautiously, I tiptoe over. Now that I am in close proximity to it, I realize that it has light brown hair and fair skin. Suddenly, I remember all the stories I was told when I was a child, about strange beings that are half human and half fish. I figure that this must be a merman that I am looking at.

I crouch beside him as the merman starts to cough and splutter, spewing salty water. His eyes flicker open, revealing a piercing, green gaze. As soon as he catches sight of me, he tenses and struggles to get away from me, though he doesn't move an inch.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Where am I?" he mutters, looking around, his eyes settling on me.

"I found you washed up on my beach by my father's castle," I say, caught in his stare like a minnow in fishing net.

"Can you help me get back to the ocean? I need to go."

"Sure," I reply, shoving him into the water. The merman is just about to dive underwater when I call out.

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Aaron," he says quietly, turning around. "Yours?"

"Erica."

I stare down at my plate of spaghetti mindlessly. I am sitting at an ornamented, mahogany table in a grand, expensive, and rather intimidating, banquet hall. The walls and floor are marble, and colourful tapestries and carpets dot the room. My father and five sisters are gulping from crystal glasses, plowing through yet another bottle of imported wine. If my dear mother had not died giving birth to me, she could have controlled the destructive habits that the rest of my family adopted.

Father and my sisters roar with drunken laughter, pounding their fists on the table. I don't blame the servants for not sticking around, but it would have been nice to have some company. Seeing as my family members cannot see past their own noses now, I plan my escape. Pushing my plate away, I am just about to get up when I am overcome with a splitting headache. My hands fly to my temples, but it persists. A spasm jolts through me, and my legs start to scream in pain. I hold my tongue, not wanting to draw any attention to myself. Suddenly, my vision goes blurry, as if I am looking at my surroundings through water. Then, it feels as if I really am in water. I blink my eyes, and when I open them, I am in an underwater cave. I whirl around, and begin to panic. How on Earth did I get in this cave, in the ocean? I go to step forward, when I realize something doesn't feel right. In place of my two legs, I have a long, scaly, blue tail. Somehow, I am breathing underwater too. I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, and realize that this is no dream.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" someone says behind me, and I whip around.

There, in the entrance way, is the merman that I rescued that day on the beach. His piercing eyes are narrowed, his green tail flicking.

"Aaron? It's me, Erica."

"How are you a mermaid? I thought you were a human," he says, but the expression in his eyes does not match the confused look on his face.

"I have no idea. I just am," I reply.

"Whatever," he tosses out, looking bored and annoyed.

"So...Do you think you could show me around?" I question him, not understanding how he could be so rude.

"Fine, your 'highness,'" he shoots back, throwing in a mock bow. "Would you like me to rub your feet for you as well? Oh, wait, you don't have feet anymore." He gives me a phony look of sympathy, his eyes hostile.

"I'll find my own way around!" I yell at him before shoving my way out the entrance, tears pricking my eyes.

Now that I'm out in the open ocean, I investigate my surroundings. I am surrounded by pristine, blue water, and I understand now that Aaron's cave is built right into a reef. Mer-people swim by every so often, with tails in every imaginable colour. In the distance, there is a magnificent castle made out of coral. I figure that the king or queen of the merfolk must live there. I am cautiously swimming further out into the open ocean, when a flustered mermaid slams into me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaims, her blond hair fanning out around her face and her blue eyes as big as clamshells

"It's okay. I'm Erica."

"Lani. Hey, are you new here? I've never seen you before," she says, looking at me curiously.

"Yeah, I am," I meet her gaze timidly.

"You can stay with me if you want," she offers, smiling genuinely. "Come on!"

I follow Lani, feeling as if I might have at least one friend here.

I yawn and sit up in the spare bed that Lani lent me. She is letting me share her cave, which is unfortunately not far from Aaron's. Yesterday passed by in a blur, from my transformation to Aaron's insults to Lani's kindness. I still have no idea how this all happened.

"Good morning!" Lani sings out, flipping out of bed and gliding over to me. She stops, looking at me strangely. "Um, Erica? What happened to your hair?"

I reach up to touch my long hair, only to find that it no longer reaches down to my lower back. Now it only rests on my shoulders.

"Who cut my hair?!" I demand to no one in particular.

Suddenly, everything clicks into place, and I know who violated me.

I rocket out of Lani's cave, speeding towards my violator's room. I jerk to a stop in front of Aaron's grotto, pounding my fists on the rock and yelling at the top of my lungs. No one comes out, so I barge in, uninvited.

"Aaron! I know you were the one that cut my hair!" I caterwaul at him.

He is leaning against the back wall of his cave, a rotten expression of smugness on his face.

"So what if I did?" he says arrogantly, but there is something else that is tenderer in his emerald eyes.

"How could you?" I state, confused about this whole situation.

"Because I hate you," he replies, but his eyes are still soft and unguarded.

I flee from the cave, bursting out into the open ocean. I swim in no particular direction, trying to get away from Aaron.

"Where are you going?" someone behind me asks in a raspy voice.

I whip around, coming face to face with a thin, old man.

"Don't believe what Aaron says," the creepy man says, "He doesn't mean it."

"How do you know-"

"I know about everything that happens in these waters."

This must be the weird sorcerer named Ulric that Lani told me about, although I'm still unclear about how he knows who I am.

"He doesn't actually hate you. He's faking it," Ulric continues in his disturbing voice.

"But...he does hate me…" I trail off uncertainly, a seed of doubt planted in my head.

Ulric swims off, leaving me even more troubled than before.

"Erica, are you okay?" Lani asks in a concerned voice.

"Yeah…" I answer quietly.

We are sitting on a seaweed covered rock near her cave, and brilliant, flashy fish are floating by every so often. I am still pondering over what Ulric told me and if Aaron hates me or not.

"Hey, losers! Over here!" someone yells, and I look up in time to get a facefull of wet, disgusting algae.

I wipe kelp out of my eyes and see Aaron double over in laughter, along with the rest of his group of friends.

"Have a nice life, seaweed face!" he yells at me, speeding away with his companions in tow.

"Ercia, I'm so sorry!" Lani exclaims, helping me remove the rotting plants from my visage.

"It's okay," I respond, touched by her kindness. "It wasn't your fault."

"Gosh, he really must hate you."

"Yeah, tell me about it," I say glumly. "Well, I hate him too."

"Let's go back to the cave and get you cleaned up," she suggests, getting up and gliding out into the open water. With a flick of my sapphire-blue tail, I follow her, swimming away.

Today is the third day since I became a mermaid, and despite Aaron's antics, I really like being away from my family. I have no idea if they miss me, but I don't think they do. To them, I've always been a pest, ruining their grown-up fun. I only have love for my dead mother, and ever since she died, I have been longing to get away from the rest of my relatives. Besides, Lani is the only real friend I have ever had, and she is very open to the fact that I am actually a human.

She had to run an errand today, so I am by myself. I leave our shared room to go exploring, even though Lani has already shown me most of the underwater city. Mer-people are swimming to and fro, eager to start the day and go about their business.

I swim by a three mermaids my age, and they giggle as I pass them. I glare at them and speed away.

The cool, salty water of the ocean ripples over my skin as my tail propels me through the water. I pass schools of fish and delicate coral reefs, and I marvel at the beauty of the sea. I hear a snicker behind me, causing me to twirl around. A skinny mermaid with thin brown hair is laughing at me.

"What?" I demand, annoyed.

"Oh, nothing, I just heard an interesting rumor about you…" She gives me a sickly sweet smile, making me think of a shark honing in on it's prey.

I frown, having an idea of who is behind the rumor. "Who started it?" I ask.

"Who do you think?" she snaps.

I whirl away, going off in search of Aaron so I can confront him once and for all.

"Aaron, I need to talk to you," I say, my tone cold and hostile.

He turns away from his friends and they take the hint, scuttling away from my livid glares.

I don't wait for him to respond, barging on. "Why would you start a rumor about me?"

"Why not?" he says stubbornly, matching my tone perfectly.

"I saved you that day on the beach, and all I get is this?" I gesture wildly with my hands.

"And-" he starts, but I cut him off.

"I have no clue what I did to make you hate me, and I want an explanation," I snap.

His expression goes from adverse to panicky, and his eyes go wide.

"I deserve an explanation for the way you've been treating me!" My voice rises to a yell.

"Isn't 'I hate you' good enough for you," his smooth manner returning in a flash, "or does her royal highness need a better answer than that?" he sneers.

I am just about to tell him exactly what I think of his petty insults when Ulric appears beside me.

"He lies!" the old man screeches, "He does not hate you!"

"WHAT?!" Aaron yells, then to me he adds, "Erica, I do hate you!"

I am incredibly bewildered at this whole exchange.

"No, he is faking it," Ulric states.

Aaron reaches out and grabs my wrists, looking me in the eye.

"Erica. Do you hate me?" he asks me firmly, something intense and desperate in the depths of his jade coloured eyes.

"Why does it matter? I don't understand," I reply, trying to squirm out of his grasp.

"I just need you to answer this one question," he says gentler this time. "Do you hate me?"

I think back to everything he's done; threw seaweed at me, cut my hair, insulted and spread rumors about me, and I abruptly make up my mind.

"Yes, Aaron," I seeth, "I do hate you!"

"NO!" Ulric howls.

Aaron is grinning at me like a lunatic, looking the happiest I have ever seen him.

"What-" I start to say, but I stop when I feel a strange sensation go through me.

I look down to see that my tail is sparkling and glittering, and it tingles. I see white, and then everything fades away.

"Erica."

My eyes flutter open, searching for the person who addressed me. I am still in the ocean, and quick glance down tells me that I still have my blue tail. I look up again to find that Aaron was the one who said my name. Everything comes flooding back, and I remember the argument that I had with him.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You sort of spaced out for a second right after you told me that you hate me."

"I'm still confused as to what happened."

Aaron sighs, and then looks up at me and smiles. "You were under a spell. Ever since you saved me, I couldn't stop thinking about you, so I went to the sorcerer Ulric so he could turn you into a mermaid. I had to make you hate me within three days, or else you would become a human again and I'd be turned into sea foam." He pauses to run a hand through his hair. "Ulric was trying to convince you that I didn't hate you so that we wouldn't be together. You said that you hated me, so you've become a mermaid permanently, and he was the one transformed into sea foam."

"I, uh…" I have no idea what to say, because nothing like this has ever happened to me before.

His expression is soft, so different from the hostile one that he has worn in my presence ever since I found him on the beach.

"You risked your life for me?" I say weakly.

He nods, his eyes clouded with emotions.

I wrap my arms around him, nearly crying with relief that Aaron does not hate me. I laugh, as everything finally clicks into place.

"I love you," he says, his words muffled in my hair.

"I love you too," I reply.

"Do you, Aaron, take Erica as your wife?" the wiry man demands from his position at the top of the coral alter.

"I do," Aaron replies, staring at me with his pair of intense, green eyes.

"And, do you, Erica, take Aaron as your husband?"

"Yes," I say, trying in vain to keep the giddiness out of my voice.

"You may now kiss."

Aaron leans in and kisses me to roaring applause. We break apart, and I catch Lani's eye from her spot in the front row. She grins and gives me a thumbs up.

**I turn back to Aaron, smiling at him. He returns the gesture, his eyes sparkling with happiness. We lived happily ever after.**


End file.
